


Talk It Out

by Rosencrantz



Category: Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Attempt to make sense of timeline, F/M, Flashbacks, Humor, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:17:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11973951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: What if Jerrica had told Rio the truth during Gold and Glitter?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



> I love this cartoon and I love that I got a chance to write about it for you. Thanks! 
> 
> And thank you to my beta, thedevilchicken.

It was a beautiful sunny day. It was eleven in the morning and Rio had managed to get an appointment with a world-renowned doctor at the last minute in a stroke of luck. In the lushly-appointed office, Rio's thoughts 'neath his purple hair were less than beautiful.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning," said Rio, hands on his chest as he laid on the therapist's couch. "That's how this goes, isn't it?"

"Start wherever you feel comfortable, Mr. Pacheco," said Dr. Strauss, pen on her notebook.

"Okay. Last week, then. Might as well start there, right? My girlfriend said she had something important to tell me. I could tell it was really important, you know? So I sat down with her and I was ready to listen to her announcement. I'm a good boyfriend, doctor. I really am. I'm always there for her," said Rio. He knitted his fingers tighter together. It still barely made sense to him but at the same time it made horrible, horrible sense.

Dr. Strauss made a noncommittal noise.

"We're talking and she keeps saying it's really important instead of just _saying_ it and right as she's about to get the news out, two men come crashing through the wall beside us and maybe I yelled at her sister for lying to them which was why they were fighting at all and maybe I accused Jerrica of being a liar too when she told me she wouldn't tell me her news now and maybe I kicked over a potted plant but this all makes sense if you know what the last two years have been like for me."

Rio sat up and looked Dr. Strauss in the eye.

"My girlfriend has been doing an extended psychological experiment on me to drive me completely insane."

"Oh?" said Dr. Strauss, writing down a note.

"Believe me. Believe me, this is all true."

`Two years ago`

Rio held Jerrica as she cried her heart out over her father. He loved Jerrica very much and thought he knew her well.

"I'll always be here for you, Jerrica," he whispered. It could take months to get over a loss like this. And then with the crap Eric Raymond was pulling on the grieving family…! It made Rio's blood boil.

A week later, Jerrica was fine. And that's when Rio met Jem.

Rio sighed as he remembered.

"She was like… a dream. No woman could be like her but there she was. And she acted like she knew me, all the time! She'd kiss me, she'd touch me, she'd tell me Jerrica was okay with it. And then Jerrica wouldn't be okay with it. But no one ever said anything. Jerrica's friends, sister, they acted like it was totally normal." Rio looked up at the ceiling like it had an answer.

"Oh?" said Dr. Strauss, making yet another note.

"I didn't understand. And sometimes Jerrica _was_ okay with it! She wouldn't mention when I kissed Jem on camera. When I was Jem's date. Sometimes she **told** me to be Jem's date. That's when… that's when things got stranger."

` A year and change ago`

Rio lay in bed wondering when his life had become about plane explosions, kidnappings, and attempted assassinations. He'd just got off the phone with Jerrica after another fight about him loving Jem more than her. 

"I don't!" he'd said. "Jerrica, you're the only one for me!"

"I see it in your eyes, Rio!" shouted Jerrica.

"How! You're never around!" 

And his temper was fraying thinner and thinner. He was jumping at shadows. 

He hated lying. He hated it more than anything. He hated deception. 

Why was his life full of it now?

"And then I had an idea. It was crazy but I thought, maybe. Maybe this was it. I thought, _Maybe Jerrica is Jem_. I don't know how, but it was the only thing that possibly made sense.

"So I asked her. She demanded how I could think that. And then there was Jem, five feet away. She ran from us. I was so sorry. I'd accused Jerrica of lying to me. She said I had better be sorry."

Rio took a deep intake of breath. He laid back down on the couch. 

"Jem was right there. And so was Jerrica. They were right there together. They couldn't be the same person because I could see both of them. You understand that, right? They were both there. And it happened again after that. I'd start to see them at the same time, Jem just leaving a room as I entered. Jerrica getting mad at me if I tried to follow Jem. Me getting mad at Jerrica for not trusting me.

"And yes, Jem kept kissing me and I kept kissing Jem. Jerrica was her boss. I don't know. Was I wrong? Yes, maybe. Were Jerrica and Jem wrong? They kept telling me one thing, then doing another. I swore when Jerrica's father died I'd always be there for her. And I have been! I love Jerrica so much.

"I love Jem, too. That's the problem. And it would have been so simple if they were the same person. But they weren't. Jerrica made it clear that they were two separate people. Two separate people who kept changing their story in the same way."

Dr. Strauss hmmed, writing quietly.

"I'm surprised my hair's purple, not silver," said Rio. "From all this stress."

Dr. Strauss marked her notepad.

"Right," said Rio.

`Six months ago`

Rio was asleep in the radio cabin of the _Bahama Queen_. It was the first time he'd slept in days since Jerrica and Jem and other girls had fallen overboard from the cruise ship. He didn't believe they were dead. They couldn't be. He wouldn't accept it. But his body gave out and sleep claimed him, even with the roughness of the cot he'd set himself up on.

He woke up to Jerrica's - wait, was it Jem's? was it Jerrica's? - voice calling for help on the radio. 

When he arrived in the helicopter on the island for the rescue, Jem and Jerrica were both standing at the door of a makeshift hut they'd called for help from. He was so happy to see them both.

"I don't know if she's evil. I think she might be."

Dr. Strauss raised an eyebrow.

"Jerrica, I mean."

`2 months ago`

Rio watched Jem spin out on the Indy 500 track. Where was Jerrica? He needed her right now. They could fight over how he felt about Jem later, but he was scared. He knew what it felt like having a car hurtle at you, his broken leg attested to that.

Jerrica was missing.

"But maybe she's not evil. Maybe I did something? Did I deserve this?"

`Yesterday`

Jem and the Holograms on stage on the glitter and gold roadster, posing with their newfound trophies. It was a beautiful moment.

Jerrica, their boss? Kimber's sister? Missing again.

Rio decided this time he would find her.

What he found backstage instead was Jem, who'd slipped away from the festivities and found him.

"Jem, I don't have time, I need to find Jerrica," he said.

"Rio…" said Jem softly. "There's something I have to tell you."

"What?" asked Rio. "I don't have time--"

Jem touched one of her star earrings and said: "Synergy, show's over."

She shimmered and became Jerrica.

Rio stared. "What the [loving]!?"

"So that's why I'm here. As far as I can tell, over the past two years I've slowly lost my mind over an extended mind game of my girlfriend's."

"I see," said Dr. Strauss, shimmering and becoming Synergy. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Rio."

Rio covered his face. "Oh, of COURSE," he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the original fic:
> 
>  
> 
> "Rio, I have a secret to tell you," said Jerrica.
> 
> "Anything, Jerrica. You can tell me anything. We have no secrets," replied Rio, holding her close.
> 
> "I'm Jem."
> 
> "What the shit."
> 
> ~The end~
> 
>  **Epilogue** :
> 
> "YOU MADE HER APPEAR FIVE FEET FROM YOU TO MAKE ME LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT BACK DURING EPISODE 16"
> 
> "God, Rio, you're so stuck in the past!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BONUS EPILOGUE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt sorry for my little purple buddy Rio.

"I designed a separate rock personality for Jem to date! It's the best solution!" said Rio.

Jem looked at Rio's drawing. "This is just Elvis."

"I can be Elvis. You owe me a fantasy rock personality, Jerrica."

"Are you still mad that Synergy said we had to silence you once and for all to protect her tech?" said Jerrica, doodling rainbow hair onto Rio's design.

"Like I said, you owe me."

"I stopped her!" 

"So what do you want to call him?" said Jerrica.

"Roc. Roc and Jem, get it?"

"Okay, no."


End file.
